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Hyperspace
Hyperspace, Underspace, Superlight, or Voidspace is an alternate dimension that is intrinsicly linked to normal space. This dimension holds locations alike to normal space, except that it is around a million times smaller than normal space. This means that if you would walk 10 meters in hyperspace space, you would walk 10 million meters in normal. However, due to the strange laws of physics in Hyperspace, moving at normal speeds is quite tricky here. Despite it being tricky, it is certainly do-able with a starship. Using Hyperspace for FTL propulsion Gaining acces to Hyperspace Gaining access to Hyperspace is relatively easy in comparison to other forms of faster-than-light propulsion. To enter, a ship must open a portal near a breach point. These breach points are in every point in the universe, but they are always in a state of flux. This means that you need a very strong computing power to calculate various formula's required to open a breach point. Breach points are also linked to gravitational forces. The stronger a gravity field, the harder it is to open a breach point. Near a heavy object such as a planet or a star, it is very difficult to open such a breach point, although not impossible. Using Hyperspace While in Hyperspace, a starship can gain incredibly speeds up to thousands of times the speed of light. This speed allows ships to fly very quickly to nearby star systems. But staying in hyperspace is the problem. Hyperspace tries to push starships back into normal space. This push drains on the Hyperdrive and will eventually overload it, forcing the starship to exit Hyperspace. This push can be counteracted by stronger Hyperdrives that can resist this force for longer, allowing the ship to cover greater distances. The Hyperdrive The Hyperdrive is the machine that counteracts the forces in Hyperspace in order to safely traverse the bizarre dimension. These operations require an enormous amount of energy, which can not be generated quickly enough by Fusion power. To continually operate a Hyperdrive, you would need power production akin to Antimatter reactors or Zero-point energy production. As these means of power production are not compact or safe enough for use on starships, many make use of fuel cells. These cells are very energy-intensive and can provide the energy that the drive needs. During use, these cells are continously replaced with full cells. These fuel cells can be charged with regular Fusion power. This dependency on fuel cells makes the Hyperdrive good for civilized and explored terrain, where you can make the trip using only a single jump into Hyperspace and where fuel cells and fusion power is plentyfull. The drive can be used for exploration too, but this would require a vast amount of fuel cells or very long wait times as the fusion reactors of starships would be used to recharge the cells. Augmentations There are ways to substantially increase the usability of Hyperspace travel. These methods are often very resource-intensive, but can be worthwhile. Hyperspace catapult The Hyperspace catapult is a space station that makes use of a large acceleration track that shoots a starship into hyperspace, instead of it having to find its own breach point. The huge computers, sensor arrays, and power reactors make that these station can effectively hurl a starship deep into its hyperspace journey before it needs to start using its own fuel cells. This starting push can provide starships with several tens of lightyears of free travel. These stations are often quite expensive to build, and only economically strong nations such as the Allied Systems Federation or the Ursear Republic made use of these catapults. An expansion on this idea is the Hyperspace highway. This highway would place various catapults in a route, so that jumps could hop from point A to B to C without the use of own starship-bound Hyperdrives. Such networks were only employed by the Allied Systems Federation, as the core systems each had a catapult, effectively connecting them all with each other. Another network was the route towards the Penthe wormhole. Both these highways were destroyed during the Vrox Rampage and the subsequent fragmentation of the Federation and the rise of the Terran state.